Skype Desk Phone

Several of our ministry leaders have requested the use of Skype… No problems here on  using a free technology for ministry… but implementing it had a few issues:
1. Skype for conference calls isn’t great no matter how you try to setup the computer speakers and mic. 
2. Skype software is just one more application to manage.

So enter the IPEVO Solo Desk Phone. 

 We did some research into Skype handsets that don’t require a computer connection (there aren’t many that don’t connect to a computer and use the software and USB port).  We read the reviews and focused in on the IPEVO Solo Desk phone. 

It runs as a DHCP client, you enter your Skype account and password and start connecting with your contacts.  We have used the phone for several test calls and even a call to Germany.  The call quality is good (for a Skype call the expected clicks etc were occasional).  The speaker phone works great and several people can meet around a table an participate on a call.

The phone is actually a little smaller than we expected, and could fit nicely in a suite case.  IPEVO must have thought people would travel with it too… they include 4 different power adapter plugs to power up the phone in places where you might need a International Power adapter.  Nice added bonus IPEVO!

HTC Touch Review part 2

Its been about 3 weeks that I have been using the HTC touch.  And believe it or not, and for those who know me well, I have only gone thru 3 handsets in that period.

Historically I have gotten my money’s worth out of my handset purchases and the HTC Touch is really no different.

This post is more about the support provided by Sprint to resolve the issues with the HTC touch.  I have spent about 3.75 hours on the phone with different Sprint representatives in the past week. 

I first had issues with the handset always roaming rather than using normal service.  While traveling to Ohio to got to the Sonicwall RoadShow I was sitting in the car with Jeremie.  JK’s phone (a HTC Mogul) would have EVDO data service and full signal… mine roaming and one bar. 

I took the phone to the Easton Town Place location in Cols, OH and after a little arm twisting they exchange the phone.  The customer service rep (named NII) said I needed all the accessories and the box to do a warranty exchange.  I obviously objected and told him he could keep the box from my new phone… After a little discussion I was walking out of the store with my new Touch… not roaming I’ll add… all was well…or was it.

That night after waiting the 4 hour customary period to kick off the data, I noticed my handset wouldn’t provision with the data services… a 1 1/2 hour support call ended after the customer service person had asked to have my phone hard reset 3 times and it didn’t resolve the problem.

The next am I called again… another hard reset and the device is declaired bad.  So they say I need to go to store to exchange the phone again.  Well since we were leaving CMH after our Sonicwall RoadShow I had no choice but to wait until we drove thru INDY on the way home to swap my phone. 

We arrived in Indy and two wonderful ladies at the Sprint location swapped out my phone again… this time even giving me some of the goodies (cables, headphones etc) and the box.

When we arrived home 4 hours later… still no data.  Another hour on the phone and Sprint tech support tells my my Data is one account and my Voice is another account… they assure me they will fix it… and ask me to call back the next morning.

I connect again with tech support and wait another 4 hours.. no data.  Finally another 45 minute support call and data is working again.

All this to say, if you can find the right Customer Service or Tech Support person from the hold queue you are in good shape… otherwise prepare to repeat your story a few times.

I would say the past few days have given the Touch some serious use… battery life is still really great, except when you have been roaming for an extended period of time.  When roaming for a large portion of the time you can kill the battery in less than 8 hours of standby.

The call quality is great, you can hear all callers very clearly and the quality of the blue-tooth radio is good… very strong connection to the Jabra250 headset.

The one beef with the Touch, the QWERTY keyboard isn’t used except in totally random text entry fields… HTC, let me choose which input device I want to use.

thumbs down for oovoo

Recently I came across a new beta service called OOVOO which provides a video conference interface for up to 6 participants.

I had a conference call thursday and we tried to use oovoo.com’s video chat/conference.   The service allows for 6 people to be on a video conference call at one time.  The interface is very clean, the setup is very easy and finding your ‘friends’ is as easy as entering their username or email address in the search.  You simply start the call by selecting the person from your contact list.

The instant messaging chat works well.  For callers who don’t have a microphone or camera on their computers, you can call them on their cell or land-line phone to include them in the audio portion of the conference call.  The quality of the audio only participants was very clear.

As for the participants using the video conference, the video was very smooth and clear.  But that is where the positives end, the audio for those who were on the video portion of the call was extremely choppy and poor; bad enough we used the telephone conference bridge for the audio on our call.

Well oovoo is still beta so maybe we’ll try it again…. but that still leaves me on a quest for a Free (or close to Free) video conferencing solution for 6-10 participants on a call.

Cool Tools Collection

I have to give credit to David Drinnon , he mentioned webware.com during a recent telephone call.  If you don’t know much about webware.com you should have on your list of sites to check out.  Their top 100 is a listing of ‘web 2.0′ sites and services.

A couple on the list that caught my eye…

 is a off-site storage/backup solution that provides a front end to Amazon S3.  They charge a $20 one time fee for their software and just $.15/gb for storage.

 is designed to make text messaging easier to use, more convenient and more accessible. Joopz allows users to send text messages from the Web to both individuals and groups, while enabling recipients to respond directly to the originating PC or Mac. Joopz web texts can be sent from any web-enabled device worldwide to any U.S. or Canadian mobile phone.

 converts voice into text for e-mails, text messages, and comments on blogs and Web sites. The new to me feature is the ability to send ‘jotts’ not to just my inbox as reminders but to specific people… staff, spouse, family etc…

 a IM client that lets you connect to 16 different messaging services… I have been using Pidgin (known to some as Piggin) and it works well for the #CITRT channel.

 have you ever wondered which planes on which carriers have power outlets, which seats are noisier than others, etc?  This site is a great resource to check the specs of the flight you are planning to book before you shell out the cash.  Its quite amazing that someone has taken the time to compile all this data.

Cool Tool - LED Patch Panels

After our recent DataCenter tours several have asked about the LED Patch panels we installed for our Telecom Rack.

These patch panels have a little LED above the RJ45 jack used to identify the port .  You plug a little device into the patch cable then into the wall jack and the LED on the Patch Panel lights up to identify the port.  No need to disconnect from a switch, the LED is green if not connected or red if connected to a switch. The little signal transmitter is $20.00 and runs on AA batteries.

We purchased these from a company called FireFold.com in North Carolina.  We frequently purchase random network ’stuff’ including bulk cat5e or cat6 from FireFold because historically their prices are really hard to beat. And when you do find a place that is less expensive on an item you normally are guaranteed the lowest price with with the “Lowest Price Guarantee” program on applicable products. FireFold.com will not match the price of any competitor they will beat it by 5%! So after finding a lower price and the price guarantee we paid $4 per patch panel over the normal patch panel price…

Now one note:  These patch panels are intended for Data wiring not telco wiring because the LED requires 2 pair to work.  So from the wall jack to the patch panel they don’t illuminate the LED on phone wiring.  But the value for us, is the ability to trace wiring from the PBX to the Patch Panel without having to go thru almost 200 extension’s patch cables.

Another cool tool firefold sells that I might buy if i knew worked as advertised and might be worth its weight in gold is the Magnepull - Model: 800A-KC.  Its a magnetic fish-tape… The claims even say you can fish wire under carpet with it.  If you buy it let me know if it works.